Seriously? I don't know anyone in this field who derives immense satisfaction from their job. Maybe if they're less than 5 years out of school and reality still hasn't hit yet...
We just love to solve puzzles, coincidentally this is also well paid.
There are a large number of programmers in this world, there's room for there to both be tons of people who love their jobs and tons of people who hate them.
You should ask yourself, though: why are you arguing so hard against other people, who you don't know, enjoying their jobs? Why is it so important to you that this myth of happiness be debunked?
the power software engineers wield is almost unfair, compared to non-software laborers - there's unlimited ways in which to get paid fairly well, ridiculously easy lifestyle, and also work on tech that aligns with doing good in the world, generally speaking. one can't have it all at the same time... but with software, you can probably have one of the largest spreads of [mission, comfortable income, low stress, {fill in with your requirement}] out of lots of other jobs.
Large companies always have politics getting in the way of engineering decisions, resulting in annoyed engineers who can't do satisfying work.
Small organisations have less politics, more creative freedom (usually) and you can have a larger impact on the organisation.
However, they usually pay less, too. If your main priority is money then you might have to suck up the misery.
Trying to work at something you enjoy has always been the path to not enjoying that which you used to, for me anyway.